I-4 Commercial Corridor Conference looks at future, past, present

Friday

Aug 11, 2017 at 9:50 PMAug 14, 2017 at 11:34 AM

Business people from Polk County and across the area got a glimpse into the past, present and future of commerce Friday at the second I-4 Commercial Corridor Conference at Florida Polytechnic University.

Mike Ferguson @mikewferguson

LAKELAND — Business people from Polk County and across the area got a glimpse into the past, present and future of commerce Friday at the second I-4 Commercial Corridor Conference at Florida Polytechnic University.

Speakers looked at the status of the county and several prominent local companies, and the future of Florida and the United States as a whole. The keynote speaker was Chris Oakley, the vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who also spoke, and Oakley focused on the nation at large, but Nelson also touched on some key issues facing Florida, including tourism, citrus greening and the space industry.

Nelson, as he has in the past, noted that about 1,000 people are moving to Florida daily and the Sunshine State recently surpassed New York as the third most populous state in the country.

When he was a young man, Nelson said, Brevard County was the fastest growing county in Florida because of the space race.

And in two years, he said, the largest rocket ever launched will start in Florida. That will serve as a precursor to a Mars fly-by in 2033.

“You will see that influencing the entire (Interstate) 4 corridor,” Nelson said.

Perhaps the biggest issue affecting Florida agriculture is citrus greening, a bacterial disease which has devestated the industry.

But he said he is still optimistic about the future of the citrus industry.

“Our scientists over here in Lake Alfred and in Fort Pierce, they’re racing the clock,” Nelson said. “I think eventually they’re going to determine the gene that causes the bacteria and they’re going to be able to go in and clip it out.”

The state's economy began to move away agriculture after a deep freeze in the 1980s, causing a shift in the state’s economy from agricultural and made way for commercial development and tourism, he said.

National issues

Nelson said he's optimistic about national infrastructure. To pay for what could be $1 trillion in spending, Nelson advocated closing tax loopholes and coming up with special exemptions to bring corporate money back from overseas.

“There are 50,000 bridges in the country that are structurally unsuited for what they’re handling,” Nelson said. “We’re not just talking bridges, but airports and seaports and broadband. The sky is the limit on what we can do.”

Nelson also noted that there is a new effort to implement high speed rail. The new proposal, he said, would send a train from Flagler Railroad down I-4 at speeds of about 110 or 115 miles per hour.

“It’s going to take revenue,” Nelson said. “It’s going to take investment. It’s going to take federal investment."

Nelson said Sen. John McCain’s return has sparked a new bipartisan effort in Washington. Before he left D.C., Nelson said, 14 senators — seven from each major political party — had dinner and talked about how they could work together on the key issues facing the country.

"I ask all of you to look over the horizon," Nelson said. "I’m so excited for all of us to work together to get things done in a bipartisan fashion and give you the things you need.”

As for jobs, Oakley said the labor market has strengthened to the point of near full employment. One issue that remains, however, is wages.

“Based on how tight the labor markets are, we’re surprised that wages are staying low,” he said. “It’s important to pay a lot of attention to this.”

Possible reasons for wages not rising, Oakley said, are there is more price transparency than there was 10 years ago, thanks to international competition.

Local tourism

On the local front, the optimism for tourism is high.

Adrian Jones, general manager of Legoland Florida, said the theme park has had a $1 billion impact since it came to Winter Haven in 2010. The park, he said, has drawn in tourists from Orlando, Tampa and internationally.

“We came at a time when agriculture and mining were in decline in Polk County,” he said.

Jones also advocated the construction of the Central Polk Parkway as a way to expand the market even more and make travel more convenient.

The Legoland hotel, Jones said, operates at 92 percent capacity and has more than doubled the number of rooms since it was built.

Kris Keprios, senior tourism sales and marketing manager for Polk County Tourism and Sports Marketing, said accommodations are one area in which the county is behind.

He said 64 percent of the hotels in Polk was built at least 20 years ago. The county has about 7,500 hotel and motel rooms, and as many vacation properties, but Keprios said that is not enough.

The good news, he said, is that it is growing. Tourism tax revenues have increased in 68 of the last 70 months and the county is on pace to bring in between 2 percent and 3 percent more revenue this fiscal year from that tax than the $10.3 million it brought in last year.

Jones said Legoland has worked to maximize the use of its money, noting that the land purchase and construction of the theme park cost just $125 million. The Antarctica ride at Sea World alone, he said, cost more than $85 million.

Although Friday was Jones’ last day as Legoland’s general manager, he addressed reports that Merlin Entertainments is interested in purchasing Busch Gardens.

“We like Busch Gardens in Tampa; we like Busch Gardens in Williamsburg (Va.),” he said. “We are in a very strong position to acquire them if they are for sale.”

Sports

Keprios said the county brought in 230 sports events last year, which had a $135 million impact.

“Sports has always proven to be recession resistant,” he said. “Parents will do whatever it takes to get to their kids’ games.”

Keprios said the No. 1 out-of-state market in Polk County comes from Michigan. That, he said, is because Lakeland is the spring training home of the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers have been good for Lakeland’s economy because that often leads visitors to downtown, he said.

“Whenever I go to Michigan and people ask me where I’m from and I say Lakeland, they automatically know where that is,” Keprios said.

The biggest event from an economic impact stand point in Polk County is the multi-day Sun n’ Fun Fly-In, he said. This past year, he said, it brought in about 200,000 guests from 60 countries and had a $175 million economic impact.

Polk's flagship business expanding

The most notable company and largest private employer based in Polk County is Publix Super Markets, headquartered in Lakeland.

Brad Crenshaw, the company’s real estate manager, said the company’s number of real estate employees has tripled from 40 to 120 over the last 10 years.

Since 2013, Crenshaw said, the supermarket giant has acquired a total of 119 properties, including 53 shopping centers. Publix now has stores as far north as central Virginia.

With the company growing rapidly, Crenshaw was asked if there was any standard practice for how far apart to put stores.

He said the standard is three miles, but noted that can vary. In St. Petersburg, he said, there are stores across the street from one another, and in the Keys, there are stores next to one another.

“Really, it depends on the market,” he said. “If you have 50,000 people in a three-mile radius with 100 grocery stores, that’s not a good thing (for starting up). If you have 50,000 people in a three-mile radius with no grocery stores, that is a good thing.”

Mike Ferguson can be reached at Mike.Ferguson@theledger.com or 863-401-6981. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson.